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“Yes, the blood of Loptous' scions flows in my veins, but there is so much more to me than that. My Loptyrian heritage is that of Saint Maera, a man who fought for the rights of the people. And more importantly, I am the one true heir to the Crusader Fjalar, Loptous' sworn enemy. I will change this world for the better. Under my rule, humanity shall be free from the pain of prejudice, tyranny and oppression! What a pity it is, that Sigurd must die, but alas, all things require sacrifice.”—Arvis to Manfroy in Genealogy of the Holy War.

Arvis is an antagonist of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. After the death of King Azmur, he is appointed as the emperor of Grannvale. Arvis is said to possess the "gift of Kings", a talent and toughness that he had even as a child, allowing him to lead Velthomer at an early age after his father's suicide. He is largely manipulated by Manfroy because he has minor Loptous blood, making him the key to Manfroy's dark ambitions.

He is the descendant of Fjalar, for which he inherits Fjalar Blood, on his father's side and Saint Maera, for which he inherits Loptous Blood, on his mother's side. He is the son of Duke Victor of Velthomer and Cigyun. He is the paternal half-brother of Azelle. He is the maternal half-brother of Deirdre. He is also the father of Julius, Julia, and Saias.

Through the blood of Fjalar, he is a distant relative of Hilda and her children, Ishtore and Ishtar.

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Arvis was born the first son of the duke of Velthomer, Victor. Victor was reputed as a womanizer, caring close to nothing about his family. At the age of 7, Arvis witnessed his father hanging and killing himself after Victor's wife, Cigyun, had an affair with Prince Kurth, leaving him with Cigyun's favorite maid and his half-brother Azelle. Arvis was then appointed the position of the next preceding duke of Velthomer, and worked to rise in position and power. Despite Azelle being born as a result of Victor's affair with a maid, Arvis apparently cared very much for him, claiming that he is one of the most important individuals in his life.

When Prince Kurth waged war with the nation of Isaach, Arvis was positioned in Belhalla to attend to King Azmur of Grannvale. When the Verdane forces assaulted Jungby, Arvis was sent to quell the oppression at a later time. He met up with Sigurd and gave him a Silver Sword on behalf of Prince Kurth. Arvis also learnt that Azelle had joined Sigurd's army, where he entrusted Sigurd with the task of keeping him safe. He then left Sigurd to the task of subduing Verdane's forces.

As corruption and oppression ran rampant in and around Grannvale, Arvis had the ambition to build a world of eternal peace, with the people not having to suffer any longer. This led to him making contact with a dark bishop who helped him in exchange for the safety of the Lopto Sect. Arvis acted on this ambition when news of Prince Kurth's assassination arrived, with the blame placed on the House of Chalphy by Duke Lombard of Dozel and Duke Reptor of Friege. This was done though his scheme to supplant the other lords by having them fight one another, claiming the lands in Jugdral along the way. Arvis then proceeded to kill these lords when they were grievously weakened. He stayed by King Azmur's side, standing in as his loyal attendant.

Arvis later found a lady lying unconscious outside Belhalla. He brought her into the the castle, where he eventually fell in love with her at first sight because she greatly resembled his mother. He wed her in an unspecified point of time in the game, without any knowledge that he had fallen into Manfroy's trap. He heard rumors that Sigurd's wife went missing and suspected that Deirdre was the one that went missing which led to him carefully watching Sigurd.

Arvis was eventually chosen to be the heir of Azmur, where he would be given the position of Emperor until his son grew old enough to succeed him. When news of Sigurd's army approaching Belhalla reached him, Arvis devised a plan to trick the army into its demise. He first sent Lombard to wage a battle with the army, where he was slain. As Sigurd's army approached the outskirts of Belhalla, he sent Reptor into the battlefield. As Reptor proceeded to carry out Arvis' orders, Arvis suddenly turned on him and cooperated with Sigurd to end his life, having his troop of mages bombard Reptor with spells from afar. Arvis proceeded to instruct Aida to direct Sigurd's army to Belhalla.

Arvis and the Roten Ritter then held an elaborate ceremony to greet Sigurd's army on their victorious return to Belhalla in an attempt to meet with King Azmur to dispel the slander placed on the Chalphy name. However, this ceremony was a disguise to his true motives, in which he sentenced them to their deaths and abruptly attacked them in what was known as the Battle of Belhalla. After taunting Sigurd by allowing him to see Deirdre for the last time to check to see whether she was in fact his wife. Upon confirming that Sigurd's missing wife was in fact Deirdre, Arvis used his personal tome Valflame to kill Sigurd while his mage unit cast a mass-Meteor shower to seemingly obliterate the rest of Sigurd's army. Following this, he investigated Deirdre's past and discovered that she was in fact his sister, but his feelings for her hadn't changed, and simply tried his best to not let her find out the truth. The sorrow that Deirdre would feel of knowing their relation to each other was the most unbearable thing for him. [1]

With the death of Sigurd, Arvis remained the sole power of Grannvale, and was eventually crowned as Emperor. He successfully created a peaceful regime in Grannvale that lasted for approximately ten years, and was also blessed with twin children, Julius and Julia with Deirdre. After this, the situation began to go downhill.

Seven years before the start of the events of the second generation, Manfroy offered Julius the Dark Tome of Loptous. Upon reading the tome, Julius was possessed by Loptous and his personality and character were drastically warped. Arvis was unable to stop this from occurring, as Julius was designated to be the next Emperor of Grannvale as decreed by Azmur in the first generation. Arvis could only watch on helplessly as the Empire which he painstakingly built was destroyed, with Julius adopting oppressive measures in his ruling. These measures included children being hunted in order to be sacrificed to the Dark Lord, alongside the extermination of any form of resistance. Deirdre was also slain by Julius, but not before she managed to teleport Julia to safety.

Arvis eventually realized that he had all along been manipulated by Manfroy, and attempted to atone for this sin by preventing as many casualties in the child hunting as he could. He eventually faced off against the Liberation Army led by Seliph, leading the defenses of Chalphy Castle. Before doing so, however, he sent out a bishop with Tyrfing and several children, intending for Seliph to receive the sword and rescue the children. Arvis was eventually slain by the Liberation Army, which avenged Sigurd's death 17 years ago. However, after the end of the Holy War, Seliph realized that Arvis was unable to escape the cruel tidings of fate which led him to carry out atrocious acts throughout the course of his life.

Arvis appears twice on the battle field, once as an NPC Sage in the Prologue, and another as an enemy Emperor in Chapter 10. In the Prologue, he wields the Valflame and a Recover Ring, making him wholly impossible to kill by the enemies, both due to their low power and Arvis' ability to instantly recover any taken damage on his turn. Any units attacking him are killed in a single hit by his Valflame. Arvis will leave the battlefield the moment Sigurd speaks to him.

At the end of Chapter 10, Arvis is extremely difficult to defeat, possibly even harder than the final boss himself. Because of his Valflame tome, Arvis has 40 Defense and Resistance, rendering any attacks not using a Holy Weapon ineffective and impractical. Furthermore, Arvis has 70 magical attack power, allowing him to kill any weak units with ease. The Forseti wielder will prove to be somewhat ineffective as well, due to Arvis' Anima Trinity advantage.

The best way to defeat him is for both Seliph and Ares to attack him constantly with their respective Holy Weapons, as they both receive resistance bonuses from them. Diarmuid and Nanna (due to both possessing the Charm skill), as well as Seliph and Ares' lovers should also be positioned nearby to grant additional accuracy and dodging abilities. Heal when necessary, and Arvis will eventually succumb to his injuries. Be sure to allow Seliph to deliver the finishing blow, as this will allow him to obtain the Life Ring from a special event after Arvis' death.

Arvis is an incredibly versatile Red Mage unit in Heroes, being available to players for free via Grand Hero Battle rotation. While his base stats, featuring high Attack and Resistance with middling Speed, seem basic on paper, it's his unique skills in Valflame and Recover Ring that really set him apart from his fellow mages.

Valflame being a Prf skill grants Arvis an extra 2 might compared to inheritable tomes, and also allows him to lower the Attack and Resistance of any unit in a cardinal direction who has lower Res than Arvis himself does, which isn't hard to pull off given his base 33 Res is tough to match for many units. Recover Ring is also a skill unique to Arvis that acts as a much better Renewal, giving him 10 HP every single turn. Put these together with his Defense Ploy skill, and you get a surprisingly potent mage duelist with great debuff support to boot.

Arvis's few shortcomings stem from his paper-thin physical bulk. With only 33 HP and 17 Defense base, among the lowest in the game on both regards, he is easily picked off by any physical damage dealers who can initiate on him as long as they aren't green. Distant Counter units are also a great threat should he not be able to finish that hero off in two hits. Thus he needs a solid frontline with good Defense and HP to circumvent the holes in his own resilience.

Brave Lyn and any lance cavalry are good examples of Arvis's biggest problem: Physical damage when the foe initiates. He also struggles to survive offensive blue mages like Reinhardt who can exploit his lesser movement, although Arvis's fate in these matchups can change if he gets the Ploys beforehand. Units with Distant Counter can also deal incredible damage to Arvis if he initiates, if not kill him outright. However, he shines in debuff and healing support rather than enemy phase combat, so if Arvis stays safe with a good frontline to protect him, he can be a big threat should he not be dealt with quickly.

Not only are Arvis's most desired skills cheap, but they synergize very well with his base kit. While his debuff support is a shining aspect of the character, he can add additional skills to exploit his Recover Ring and exponentially expand his versatility. In the Assist slot, he can add Ardent Sacrifice to his kit to provide a heal to his allies; although he does lose some HP himself, Recover Ring will replace that HP the following turn. Said recovery is also a great excuse to run Fury, giving Arvis a generous boost to all of his stats with the Ring offsetting any downside to the skill; thus Fury allows Arvis to Ploy even some high-Resistance units with his boosted Res, while pushing his Attack and Speed to actually impressive levels, all with virtually no downside.

As for the rest of his kit, Arvis may want to consider replacing Growing Flame given the conditions to activate it are tricky, and do not help him very much in his key matchups. The recommended option for his Special is Iceberg, to turn his high Resistance into a means of bolstering his already-high damage. If you have a means of inheriting Speed Ploy (from Saias or Deirdre), you can replace his native Defense Ploy with that and instead equip the Defense Ploy seal, granting Arvis the ability to debuff all four stats. With all of these inheritances combined, Arvis becomes the best support mage available for free, and one of the best support mages overall, in the entire game.

“At long last... Seliph. I must commend your courage, boy. But courage cannot save you now. Not since your dear departed father have I seen such a pathetic worm... My flames shall purge you from this world!”—Arvis, when fighting Seliph in Chapter 10

Between the first and second generations, Arvis somehow loses the ability to use Light magic. This is because the Sage class possesses a B rank in Light by default, whereas the Emperor class does not. Arvis also loses the Continue skill, which is a class feature of the Sage class.

Despite his prominence in the plot, there is only one artwork of the second generation's version of Arvis. In this art piece, Emperor Arvis appears much less aged than his in-game appearance.

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